Carnivals and Cantabria

It’s been quite some time since I wrote a blog post. I have absolutely no excuse for this excepting a lack of enthusiasm and being buried under the monotony of teaching English to kids who, for the most part, don’t want to learn anything. My class of fourteen year olds yesterday whose creative writing exercises all involved either alcohol or STI’s are a prime example. Anyway, I’ve had a great time traveling over the past two weeks; across Asturias and into Ourense and then up to Santander for a sunny weekend by the sea.

Ourense was to be my first new place of the year; I’d done nothing but repeats before this. My trip was almost cut short when I discovered, mere days before leaving, that while one academy follows school holidays – giving me Monday and Tuesday off work – the other does not… This led to a slightly awkward conversation with my boss as I explained that I had already booked my six-hour bus journey back from Ourense for the Tuesday. Luckily, a solution was found and last Friday I boarded a train to visit Olivia.

Travelling through Asturias and into Galicia was quite an experience. At one point the train was curling around the side of a cliff, with a sheer drop to the left and a mountain top to the right. Of course, given that this is Spain, for the majority of my journey I had no clue where I actually was. It doesn’t help that trying to pronounce anything in gallego involves slightly more intelligence than I am in possession of. Eventually, whilst on the phone to Olivia and blaspheming against the endless nothingness of the Galician countryside, I spotted the beginnings of civilisation: I had arrived into Ourense.

Following the typically Spanish habit of claiming that whatever happens in the exact town you come from is THE BEST EVER, I had been informed that Galicia is the best place outside the Canary Islands for Carnival, and Ourense is the best place inside Galicia.

I can quite happily confirm that the Gallegos, on this occasion, were not exaggerating.

Every night that we went out the streets were filled with people in costumes – including quite a few priests, nuns and popes – bands playing music in the streets, and generally the kind of fiesta atmosphere you would expect at Carnival.

We had chosen to dress up as flappers – a concept lost on the Spaniards, who required a demonstration of the Charleston to understand. There is a mountain of issues with dressing up in the north of Spain; do you take a coat? Do you take an umbrella? Will it rain? Luckily the tight streets of Ourense’s old town mean that even when the rain did begin to fall, it didn’t cause too much of a problem.  

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite so good the rest of my stay and a trip to the thermal baths had to be cancelled as the baths had quite literally been swallowed up by the rising river.

The little bubble on the left is what remained of the thermal baths! 

But no fear, as always Spain is there to help out with an abundance of cheap wine and tasty food!

Olivia and I departed Ourense together on the Tuesday by bus. It was a completely bizarre journey as whilst we drove through Castilla metres of snow appeared on either side of the road! After six hours we made it safe and sound back to Oviedo.

The weekend after, it was time for my third yearly pilgrimage to Santander, an accidental tradition which began at the end of my year abroad. Santander pulled out all the stops to welcome us, glorious sunshine!

As has become customary on each of my trips to Santander I visited the Palacio de la Magdalena not once but TWICE! The second trip came about because we discovered that on Sunday the doors to the Palacio would be opened and we could look around inside!

It was a shame that only the first floor and a few select rooms on the second were open; the spaces that are used for conferences and weddings – as the building is now owned by the government of Cantabria. Upstairs are the Royal Bedrooms which are always available for the Royal Family, even though they haven’t visited for over a decade. Despite the limited tour it was amazing to go inside and have someone explain the history of the building.

Before leaving Santander I checked to see if my favourite piece of graffiti was still on the bus station wall.

"Never forget the only objective in life is to be happy."

I saw this just before leaving Santander, having waved Kerensa off on her boat, not knowing that she had seen it on her arrival ten months before.

It’s a funny old world.

A few weeks ago I received some wisdom, as I often do, from one of the old ladies who live in my building. Whilst waiting for the lift she asked me where I was from and what I was doing here, she replied,

“A, que bien vivais vosotros. Es vuestro mundo hija.”

Translated, although it doesn’t sound half as good, it means;

Ah, how well you live. It’s your world.”

I think she’s right.